Renato Canini

Renato Vinicius Canini

(22 February 1936 - 30 October 2013, Brazil)

Zé Carioca - O Passageiro Misterioso (Almanaque Disney 14, 1972)

Born in Paraí, Renato Canini was raised in Frederico Westphalen and Garibaldi. At the age of 21 he had his first job with the State Department of Education and Culture, doing illustrations for children's magazine Cacique. He spent the next ten years doing technical drawings, while doing cartoons for Correio do Povo, TV Piratini and alternative publications on the side. In 1967 he moved to São Paulo to become an illustrator for Bem-Te-Vi, the children's magazine of the Methodist Church. He began his collaboration with Editorial Abril two years later, initially with magazine Recreio and later for the publisher's Disney comic books.

Os Urubuservadores (Zé Carioca #1131, 1973)

Between 1971 and 1983 he was involved in the creation of new stories starring the Disney character 'Zé Carioca' for the publication of the same name. Canini gave the character a more modern look and changed the setting to a less stereotypical Brazil. Although workign anonymously, Canini often hid his name in his panels, as a brand of soap or a soccer pool, among other things. Since Canini's style was too personal, publisher Abril judged it differed too much from Disney, so from 1978 to 1983 Canini was limited to do only scripts. In addition to 'Zé Carioca', Canini has also done some 'Beagle Boys' and 'Little Hiawatha' stories.

Dr Fraud

Besides Disney, Canini has also created several comic strips by himself, such as 'Dr. Fraud' in magazine Patota of Editora Artenova. He created the western parody 'Kaktus Kid' for Abril's comic book Crás! in 1974-75. He participated in Abril's Projeto Tiras (Comic Strip Project) with the creation of the Indian 'Tibica', whose adventures were published in newspapers across the country.

In the 1960s he was involved in the creation of CETPA, a cooperative publishing effort in Porto Alegre, together with Júlio Shimamoto, Getúlio Delphin, João Mattini, Bendatti, Flávio Teixeira and Luiz Saidenberg. Canini participated with the character 'Zé Candango', a parody on American superheroes, published in Jornal do Brasil and Zero Hora. The artist passed away in Pelotas on 30 October 2013.